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Atmosphere at Cornell

Ok... I'm a rising senior and was considering Cornell. I visited it, and now they only Ivies I'm applying to are Dartmouth and Brown.

It seemed to me that Cornell has a really non-serious atmosphere. Like, one of the biggest school traditions is throwing squid at Harvard's hockey team. The impression I got was Cornell was all about drinking, partying, squid-throwing, and not caring about anything deeper than the keg at the next frat party. Is this true? (There's a rather nasty joke a Dartmouth kid told me that I won't repeat).

in all seriousness, cornell is a very fun place, but that is paired with an intense academic environment. libraries are open 24 hours a day because there are actually people using them 24 hours a day, every day.

With regard to all your "non-serious" cornell traditions, i don't see why squid throwing is such a big issue for you. It's actually fish throwing, for the record, and it's part of the hockey tradition and the big harvard-cornell hockey rivalry. It all goes back to when harvard started it by tying a chicken to our goalpost mocking the ag school. We now respond by throwing fish at them because of their proximity to boston harbor.

I've visited Cornell a few times for Model UN and I loved the atmosphere and it's the main reason I'm applying. It seems to balance serious and fun. Can't really explain how I came at that conclusion, but it is the sort of vibe I felt.

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